Category Archives: Community

The Real Work

Posted on February 12, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

I found it interesting that as I searched for a poem I typed in the words The Real Work by Wendell Berry. As Google anticipated, another search emerged: The Real Work by Gary Snyder. This book of essays emerged from a series of interviews and talks Snyder conducted over several years.

Wendell Berry and Gary Snyder are writers, environmentalists and farmers who live in Kentucky and California respectively. Together, they wrote a book called Distant Neighbours and shared their views about the real work they undertook as writers, environmentalists, and farmers. How each of them understood and wrote about real work echoed the other.

Real work happens not when we find ourselves going through the work aimlessly and mindlessly. It emerges when obstacles arise and we are mindful and attentive in our work. It holds our interest through baffling us and our being unsure of what to do next. As we work thoughtfully and our mind is employed in meaningful acts, our work sings like an impeded stream and makes us whole. It is like we our speaking through our work and its meaning to us.

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.

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Posted in Community, Leadership, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath, Synchronicity, teacher as transformer and tagged community, creativity, Gary Snyder, mindful leadership, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, teacher as transformer, The Real Work, Wendell Berry. Bookmark the permalink.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitude

Posted on February 11, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

Solitude has soft, silky hands, but with strong fingers it grasps the heart and makes it ache with sorrow. /Kahlil Gibran/ Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitude

Source: Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitude

This is a short and powerful quote by Khalil Gibran accompanied by a glowing flame. It is in those moments of true solitude we find ourselves and who we are lights the path ahead.

Solitude embraces us in its questions without pre-known answers. We we engage the deepest parts of our self in conversation. Engage means to pledge and in solitude we can pledge to make a difference in the world.

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Posted in Community, Education, Mindful Life, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer, Uncategorized and tagged conversational journey, creativity, eloquent questions, Khalil Gibran, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, solitude, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Be Kind Whenever Possible

Posted on February 10, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

In the midst of living life, be KIND. If life is one of success, be kind and show others the way. If there is joy, lift others up and be kind. If there is a setback, be kind. This moment sha…

Source: Be Kind Whenever Possible

The post linked provides a short list of what benefits we accrue when we are kind and two quotes that support the personal need to be kind. As challenging as it is sometimes, being kind is essential to our personal well-being. We feel better when we are kind to others. When we smile, we share what is good in our life with them and acknowledge them as a person.

The Dalai Lama said to be kind when it is possible and it is always possible. Kahlil Gibran counselled kindness is a manifestation of strength and resolve. When we are kind to others, we are mindful and present to them and their needs in that moment and act towards them in an uplifting manner.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer, Uncategorized and tagged community, loving kindness, Mindful Practice, servant-leadership, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Solitude. A Photographic Journey.

Posted on February 9, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits, unless I spend four hours a day at least, and it is commonly more than that, sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields, absolu…

Source: Solitude. A Photographic Journey.

The photographs are wonderful and a quote accompanies each speaking to the essential nature of spending time with our self. It is in reflective moments that we spend in solitude that we rediscover who we are in trying to make our self whole.

The Hasidic scholar, educator, political activist, and philosopher Martin Buber said “solitude is the place of purification.” Through dialogue with our self, others, and the world, we grow to understand who we are and our place in the world in relationship to others.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Photography, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer, Uncategorized and tagged community, conversational journey, creativity, Deepak Chopra, Desmond Tutu, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Martin Buber, Mary Oliver, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, nature, Paulo Coehlo, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Absence

Posted on February 8, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

I’ve come to understand that absence lies at the heart of our seeing more clearly. It’s often in something’s absence that we suddenly begin to see, whatever it is, in a new light.…

Source: Absence

Jacques Derrida said one cannot speak of something without acknowledging its opposite. When we hear black, it is natural for us to think of white. He went so far as to say that to claim one is atheist acknowledges the very possibility God exists.

Absence make the heart grow fonder, particularly when we love something or someone deeply. The Khalil Gibran quote at the end is essential to how we come to appreciate what and who we have in life. It is in the moments absence we grow to understand how much we love. It is in those moments we grow to be mindful and attentive when absence turns to presence.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer, Uncategorized and tagged creativity, gift of love, Jacques Derrida, Khalil Gibran, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

All That We Share (Watch!)

Posted on February 7, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

Video post by @davidkanigan. This is a great post from David and worth the few minutes it takes to watch it.

Source: All That We Share (Watch!)

As I watched this video, it reminded me of an undergraduate class I took. It was the only class non-special needs undergraduate students could take.

I recall how our text and professor focused on the idea that we have far more in common than what makes us difference. At the core, we are each humans and, when we see each other in that light, it makes all the difference.

When we take time and are mindful to each person present to us, we can grow and understand their presence is a gift to each of us. The differences make us each a unique star in the universe, but there is more to each of us that makes us the same.

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Posted in Community, Education, Leadership, Mindful Life, Reflective Moments, Social Justice, Synchronicity, teacher as transformer, Uncategorized and tagged community, conversational journey, education, Mindful Practice, servant-leadership, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

The Shadow

Posted on February 6, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

Last night, as I posted, the words of a paragraph began to take shape as a poem and Mary Oliver’s words echoed for me.

Today, I took those words and echoes and finished the poem. It has been some time since I wrote a poem. Perhaps, without the urgency of writing a dissertation, this just happened. As well, the break without a need to read and write may have helped and freshened my desire to write differently.

There is no sense of urgency.

Here, I am in the shadow of nature

It uplifts, holding me close.

Nature reminds of less mechanical ways and times;

Of just being and living in the moment.

Pelicans dive bomb the surf in an instinctive search,

Oblivious to me, they bob on the waves.

At night, stars fill darkness and stillness,

They wait to be touched.

Oxen pull a plow across the hardpan soil,

They follow a deep-rooted instinct lost on me

The horse trotts a path, familiar to it

I sway, recalling greater comfort the last time I rode.

I recall days past.

I unsmother moments, days and experiences

My dreams call out to me;

They breathe life into my being.

Here, I sense what it might mean to live and just be.

Without urgency, there is a lightness in my gait.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath, Synchronicity, teacher as transformer, Writing and tagged community, creativity, Mary Oliver, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, nature, poetry, teacher as transformer, The Shadow. Bookmark the permalink.

* My Words for 2017

Posted on January 21, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

It will be a time of change. Life is unfolding along an unexpected and uneasy path, with so much outside of our control. When moving into the unknown, it is helpful to sit and pause and listen to o…

Source: * My Words for 2017

Be ready to be fierce.

Be ready to be kind.

Those words sound paradoxical, but to be kind one has to be fierce in our kindness to others. We must want to be kind in the way others have set an example for us.

It is like being radical, which takes us back to our roots. In French, roots is racine and it connected to being radical. If our roots are strong and give us strength to act and speak out against the wrongs others do to the world and people, we can stand and shelter those who need it.

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Posted in Community, Leadership, Mindful Life, Reflective Moments, Social Justice, teacher as transformer and tagged community, Mindful Attitude, mindfulness, social justice, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Kahlil Gibran

Posted on January 20, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

In this little treasure of a book I found yesterday, is a quote .. I had not seen this one before from one of Kahlil Gibran’s writings;. You pray in your distress and in your need; would tha…

Source: Kahlil Gibran

This is a wonderful quote from Kahlil Gibran. We should make it a daily practice to pray whether it is in a time of need or not. When we pray, it can be a thankful and mindful practice that acknowledges the good that comes into our lives.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer and tagged Khalil Gibran, mindfulness, poetry, prayer, spiritual thinkers, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Our Devotion to Transformation

Posted on December 29, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

In this poem, Alice Walker counselled us to think of life as a transforming event. Parker Palmer referred to the inner and outer movement as similar to a Möbius Strip with one side that is continuous.

We have to pause and be mindful, but it is not like we are separate from the world. We live in it and it lives in us. We act on it as it acts on us.

Living is about going beyond who we are. Trans means to go beyond. We are continuously moving beyond who we are at any given moment. It is inevitable and poetic. Living is poetry. We are always creating someone and something new, despite ourselves.

Poetry is leading us.

It never cares how we will

be held by lovers

or drive fast

or look good in the moment;

we are committed to movement

both inner and outer;

and devoted to transformation

and to change.